Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It was late at night. The main streets of Changâan were still brightly lit.
But outside the main streets, the city was already in darkness.
In the darkness of the night, a faintly discernible figure leaped up and down the roofs of houses, heading toward the city wall.
A moment later, the figure had already aimed at the gap in the patrol of the guards on the city wall. With a leap, he directly landed outside the city wall.
This figure was none other than Zhou Shu!
During the day, Zhou Shu had broken through in front of Yin Wuyou, and then Yin Wuyou had excitedly rushed into the palace.
Not long after, she returned dejectedly. She told Zhou Shu not to be anxious and then left.
Zhou Shu wondered why she told him not to be anxious.
Did she know that he was anxious?
Zhou Shu thought for a moment and decided to pretend he didnât hear anything. He was just anxious and didnât want to wait any longer!
The Golden Bell Shield Technique had broken through to the tenth level. Although the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique hadnât broken through to the eleventh level, it had also improved greatly. Even the Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form had also improved.
Zhou Shu felt that his cultivation level had improved once again.
Now, if he encountered Xiao Shunzhi again, even if he didnât leave heaven-grade sabers behind, he was confident that he could retreat unscathed!
In that case, he had to seek revenge!
That brat Shen Yue had lost 10,000 gold taels to him and wanted to use a heaven-grade weapon to repay his debt?
It wasnât that he couldnât use a heaven-grade weapon to repay the debt. The problem was that this heaven-grade weapon was originally his!
Ever since Zhou Shu debuted, he had never suffered such a huge loss!
If he couldnât vent his anger, even the title of nobility wouldnât make him happy!
Zhou Shu moved like lightning, quickly passing through the outskirts of the capital.
After he reached the tenth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique, his internal strength had already returned to its origin. His true qi was extremely vigorous, and he could injure anyone with it. Furthermore, his only weakness was one inch from his vital point. Unless someone pierced him within this one inch, any ordinary attack would not be able to hurt him.
At this moment, although Zhou Shu had yet to learn any lightness technique, with the support of his powerful true qi, his running speed was no less than that of a fast horse.
Zhou Shu only took a few moments to arrive at the post house from the capital.
He could faintly feel that there seemed to be a blazing sun in the post house even when he was still a distance away.
This should be Great Weiâs Imperial Preceptor Xiao Shunzhi!
After his Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form improved, he could already faintly sense Xiao Shunzhiâs strength.
Previously, he couldnât even sense Xiao Shunzhiâs existence.
The Great Wei imperial preceptor is indeed very strong!
In the past, there had been no comparison. Now that Zhou Shu had cultivated the Emperor Xuan Jade Book, his body also had spiritual essence equivalent to a ninth-rank martial artist.
Compared to Xiao Shunzhi, the little bit of spiritual essence in his body was almost nothing.
This wasnât just the difference between heaven and earth. This was the difference between the ninth heaven and eighteenth level of hell.
A first-rank martial artist and a ninth-rank martial artist were indeed two different existences!
The ninth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique couldnât block Xiao Shunzhiâs attack, and he didnât know if the tenth level would be able to block it!
He reckoned that it would be difficult as well. If he wanted to completely block Xiao Shunzhiâs attack, he would have to wait until the twelfth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique, when he reached perfection in it.
But it wouldnât be easy for Xiao Shunzhi to completely break the defense of the tenth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique.
Letâs put it this way. He would be able to take on Xiao Shunzhiâs attack with the tenth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique. He might get injured, but it wouldnât kill him.
The attack of a first-rank martial artist was very powerful. It was already very impressive that he wouldnât die from it.
Even so, Zhou Shu didnât want to fight Xiao Shunzhi head-on.
He wasnât here to fight. Even if he wanted to fight, he had to take revenge first, right?
Zhou Shu slowly circulated the true qi in his body, hiding the aura of his spiritual essence.
At the same time, he visualized the Five Mountainsâ True Form in his consciousness. Even his spiritual fluctuations were completely restrained, as if he had become a rock.
Then he quietly approached the post house.
Zhou Shou knew that Great Weiâs diplomatic mission had set up sentries around the post house.
When he and Yin Wuyou came over in the day, those scouts had informed the people in the post house beforehand.
At the time, Zhou Shu had already used his divine sense to locate the sentries.
The divine sense was the result of Zhou Shu cultivating the Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form. It was a power that was of a higher level than true qi or spiritual essence.
Zhou Shu didnât know if a first-rank martial artist had similar abilities, but it was obvious that Xiao Shunzhi couldnât detect his divine sense.
Since he knew what he was doing, Zhou Shu was naturally able to move with ease.
Without alerting any scouts, he had already entered the post house.
The post house was now used to receive Great Weiâs diplomatic mission. Other than a few postmasters, the rest of the people in the post house were from the Great Wei diplomatic mission.
Zhou Shu released his divine sense, enveloping a ten-foot radius around him. Within this ten-foot radius, no matter what happened, nothing could escape his divine sense.
Of course, it wasnât that he couldnât sense anything from ten feet away. It was just more effective within ten feet.
Zhou Shu had only walked a few steps into the post house when he discovered several third or fourth-rank experts.
Fortunately, none of them had discovered his divine sense.
Upon discovering this fact, Zhou Shu became even more cautious.
Great Weiâs diplomatic mission was stronger than he had imagined.
If he was discovered, there would be a fierce battle.
Zhou Shu wasnât afraid of being beaten to death. After all, he had the Golden Bell Shield Technique protecting him. Even if he couldnât win, he could still escape.
However, being ganged up on was definitely not a good experience.
Zhou Shu definitely didnât want to try.
One diplomatic mission has so many experts. Iâve already killed one third-rank martial artist, but there are still three more! Are there so many experts in Great Wei?
He had a feeling that there was something wrong with Great Weiâs diplomatic mission.
Did a normal diplomatic mission need to send so many experts?
Even if both countries were at war, envoys shouldnât be touched. Great Xia still had this bit of grace.
Furthermore, if Great Xia really wanted to kill them, even if more third-rank martial artists came along, it would be useless.
As for the safety of the diplomatic mission, the imperial preceptor was a first-rank martial artist. Would bandits be tired of living and rob them?
But if he could think of all these things, the Imperial Court would definitely be able to think of it as well.
Zhou Shu didnât believe that the Great Xia Imperial Court wouldnât know about the arrival of so many experts from Great Wei!
Last time, he saw a man who was not the slightest bit weaker than Xiao Shunzhi come to this post house. This person was probably an expert of Great Xia.
Zhou Shu did his best to avoid the area where Xiao Shunzhi was. Although he was very confident in his saber art, first-rank martial artists were already another realm. Who knew what abilities they had?
With the help of his divine sense, Zhou Shu quickly found Shen Yueâs room.
In the middle of the night, Shen Yue was still awake and cultivating.
Indeed, no one could succeed easily, exceptâ¦
Shen Yue was already a fourth-rank martial artist at such a young age. Although it had to do with talent, it also couldnât do without his hard work.
What one was most afraid of was talented people who were hardworking. Ordinary people were completely no match for them at all.
Zhou Shu cursed in his heart.
With Shen Yueâs age, being able to have a fourth-rank Martial Dao cultivation was definitely amazing.
Although Yin Wuyou was younger than him and had a higher cultivation level than him, Zhou Shu estimated that there must be some reasons behind Yin Wuyouâs current cultivation level.
Perhaps she was a monster like Lu Wenshuang from Qingzhou.
Other than those few monsters, people like Shen Yue were already extremely rare.
Mi Ziwen was very powerful, wasnât he? He was the eldest son of the richest family in Great Xia, the only successor of Great Xiaâs God of War. He was a few years older than Shen Yue, but he was only a fourth-rank martial artist.
A third-rank martial artist was also known as a Grandmaster. The threshold between a fourth-rank martial artist to a third-rank martial artist was a bottleneck that countless martial arts elites encountered.
Zhou Shu silently stood outside Shen Yueâs window. As his thoughts ran wild, he seriously considered robbing himâ¦
If he could rob Shen Yue without alerting Xiao Shunzhi, that would naturally be the best.
Zhou Shu glanced in the direction where Xiao Shunzhi was. Shen Yueâs room was only several meters away from Xiao Shunzhiâs room.
After all, this post house was not very big.
To an expert like Xiao Shunzhi, such a close distance was practically nonexistent.
As long as there was a slight movement, he would be able to detect it immediately.
Once he sensed it, Zhou Shu would have no time to rob him.
Although Shen Yueâs fourth-rank cultivation wasnât low, Zhou Shu estimated that with his cultivation, if he attacked with his full strength, he would be able to defeat Shen Yue in three moves.
The problem was that he had the confidence to put Shen Yue down, but he didnât have the confidence to do so without alerting Xiao Shunzhi.
If only there was some incense or something like this, I could just blow on it and make Shen Yue fall asleep.
Zhou Shu was not completely out of ideas.
The Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form!
This mystic technique for cultivating oneâs spirit was also an offensive technique. It could unleash spiritual attacks.
When Zhou Shu had first obtained the Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form, he had used it to kill Xiao Zongshui and Zhen Cai. He had also used it to stun Hongxiu from Lichun Courtyard.
However, Shen Yue was different from the three of them. Shen Yue was a fourth-rank martial artist. Even though Zhou Shuâs Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form was much stronger than before, he wasnât sure he would be able to knock Shen Yue out with one strike.
If he didnât completely lose consciousness, then Xiao Shunzhi would definitely be alerted.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Just as Zhou Shu was deep in thought, an explosion suddenly sounded in midair.
A voice sounded. âXiao Shunzhi, Iâm here again. Letâs fight another three hundred rounds!â
Accompanying this voice, streaks of lightning appeared in the sky. A handsome middle-aged man stepped on the thunderclouds like a god of lightning.
âYin Changhao! Do you think Iâm afraid of you?â Xiao Shunzhiâs voice filled with anger rang out, and then a golden light shot into the sky from the post house. âYou come to harass me every few days. Is this the attitude your Great Xia has toward the diplomatic mission from another country?â
âXiao Shunzhi, donât get the diplomatic mission involved. This is our personal grudge!â
The middle-aged man said disdainfully, âIâm just here to spar with you. If you donât dare, just say it. I wonât force you.â
Xiao Shunzhiâs expression was gloomy. âYou asked for it. Donât blame me for being impolite!â
A huge golden palm slapped toward the man.
Yin Changhao laughed and raised his hand. A bolt of lightning struck the palm.
With a loud boom, the two of them began fighting.
Good opportunity!?Zhou Shuâs eyes lit up. In his divine sense, Shen Yue was already awakened by this commotion. He opened his eyes and prepared to come out to check.
Without any hesitation, Zhou Shu activated the Visualization of the Five Mountainsâ True Form and pressed toward Shen Yue.
Boom!
The moment Shen Yue got off the bed, he suddenly felt as if five towering mountains had appeared in front of him and pressed down on him.
The mountains were so tall that they brought with them an endless sense of oppression. Just one look at them made his limbs turn cold, and his breathing became somewhat irregular.
However, he was indeed impressive. In the blink of an eye, he had already bit the tip of his tongue and endured the intense pain in his head to regain consciousness.
But when experts exchanged blows, one second was enough to change the outcome.
Just as he regained consciousness, a fist the size of a clay pot filled his vision.
Bang!
Shen Yue blacked out and fainted.
Even when he fainted, he didnât see who had ambushed him!
Bang!
Zhou Shu punched the unconscious Shen Yue again before nodding in satisfaction.?Symmetry is perfect.
He no longer paid attention to Shen Yue, who had fainted on the floor. Right now, two experts were fighting outside, and the commotion had completely covered up the noise here.
Zhou Shu quickly searched the room.
A moment later, he put a stack of banknotes into his pocket in disappointment.
You boasted so much, yet youâre just a poor man! No wonder you didnât pay your betting debt. So you canât afford it!?Zhou Shu looked at Shen Yue with disdain.
Shen Yue is just a deputy envoy. Will the main envoy be richer?
Zhou Shu looked toward Xiao Shunzhiâs room, and his heart began to itch uncontrollably!
Under normal circumstances, he wouldnât have this thought. After all, Xiao Shunzhi wasnât someone to be trifled with.
But now that Xiao Shunzhi was being entangled by the expert outside, there shouldnât be anyone in his room, right?
Thereâs no time to lose. There wonât be another chance like this. Iâll go take a look!?Zhou Shu made a straightforward decision.
Covered by the sound of the chaos outside, his figure moved like lightning, avoiding the other experts of Great Weiâs diplomatic mission, who had already rushed into the courtyard to watch the show. Then like a wisp of smoke, he entered Xiao Shunzhiâs room.
A moment later, a sneaky figure came out of Xiao Shunzhiâs room, quickly climbed over the wall of the post house, and disappeared into the night.
At this moment, lightning suddenly flashed in the sky, and Yin Changhao retreated dozens of feet.
He stood in the air and waved at Xiao Shunzhi. âThatâs all for today. As expected of my opponent, Old Xiao, youâre really strong. Itâs hard to determine the outcome today. Wait for me to go back and practice my ultimate move. Weâll fight another day!â
Yin Changhao turned into a bolt of lightning and disappeared.
Xiao Shunzhi looked in the direction Yin Changhao disappeared with a gloomy expression.
It was only because this was Great Xia that he restrained himself. Otherwise, he would definitely teach Yin Changhao a lesson!
He snorted and landed on the ground.
âGo back to sleep! Whatâs there to see!â Xiao Shunzhi berated. With a flick of his sleeve, he turned around and returned to his room.
A moment later, an angry roar came from Xiao Shunzhiâs room. âYin Changhao!â